This summer we cultivated no Musquée de Provence pumpkins in Rosslyn’s gardens. No bulging-but-flattened fruit, watermelon green until ripening like a September sunset, veiled with a waxy glaze (until rubbed, then terracota orange) and exuberant lobes swollen between pronounced ribs. It was an inadvertent omission, and I’m vowing that next summer will be different.
The still-green Musquée de Provence above was photographed by me on September 22, 2020 as we were adapting to pandemic living. Great looking fruit. Right?
I no longer recollect where/how I stumbled across this unique specimen, the dark orange flesh of which promised a flavor profile described variously as moderately sweet, blending sweet potato and chestnut, with a spicy aroma. And it promised to be a handsome display flanking the limestone steps up to Rosslyn’s front entrance.
It was exciting to watch the oversized fruit grow and grow and grow… By Adirondack autumn they were massive. I couldn’t wait to taste them!
But a couple of days absent from the garden conspired with an early hard frost, and the beautiful Musquée de Provence pumpkins spoiled. I took several frozen behemoths into the house to defrost, but they had cracked during freezing and began bubbling as they thawed. Pungent pumpkin “meat” began to ooze from the cracks. I surmised that the fruit was fermenting?
Discouraged, I composted them and vowed to order more seeds and try again the following year. And then forgot. Not once. Not twice. Four years in a row I’ve neglected to try again.
But next year will be different. Better order seeds now!
What do you think?